East Coast Travels

2007

We will be working our way north the next few months... visiting places we rushed by on other trips. With our new insurance we need only be at Morehead City, NC by June first, not the George Washington bridge in New York. Hopefully we can dodge the series of Nor'easters we hit last time.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 05/15/2007

4/16/07 - By Monday's sunrise the wind was a measly 8 knots. The Coast Guard announced they were re-opening Port Royal Sound and Charleston harbors. Channel 16 on the VHF resumed the normal cadence of vessel calls, the ICW was back to normal... only an wide assortment of trash floating in the water to mark the storm's passing. AA and crew had survived another adventure. It took us another 3 hours to get to Charleston. while some bridges were still not opening the one we needed did. We went to the American Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) rendezvous with Bradd & Maeve and were able to register (we'd been on the waiting list). We'll be attending seminars the next 3 days. Interesting subjects for anyone interested in doing the loop. I also was able to order for delivery tomorrow an instrument that will allow me to analyze the fault messages on the Espar heater and get it restarted. Neat day - met a lot of really nice folks! Oh, the weather last night? Shore stations recorded gust to 70 knots. No wonder we were getting knocked around. 4/17/07 - 49 degrees out this morning. Brrr. I have a diagnostic tool coming in today for the heater. Temporarily we've used the diesel engine - it gives off a lot of heat if you open the doors into the cabin. The forecast calls for high winds, partly cloudy and temperatures in the mid 70's... not an issue as we're socializing today and tomorrow. 4/18/07 - I spent the day at at the AGLCA sessions. Ruth had a migraine headache and spent the day aboard, joining me for dinner. Learned a lot, met a lot of great people - neat day. We received the diagnostic tool for the heater and tested it, learning that the flame sensor was shot. We ordered one. 4/19/07 - Our last day at the AGLCA  rendezvous, we had a great time. Also the flame detector arrived - the service we've experienced with Transport Refrigeration, Inc is legendary. Mike in service is awesome... the world could use a few dozen more like him. My next step will be to disassemble the heater and install the parts - giving Buddy a new level of security for our northern trek. We had a lot of fun today with new friends, good sessions, and winning door prizes (waterway guides) equal to the cost of the rendezvous. Dinner tonight was a treat - low country new potatoes, corn on the cob, salad and tons of shrimp... thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Tomorrow we start north with Sampatecho. We've been to Charleston 3 times, each time we learn more about this beautiful historic city. 4/20/07 - A little cool today, we're out of Charleston and motoring up the ICW due to winds forecast at 25-30 out of the north. As it turned out we didn't see anything above 10 knots out of the north. We soon cleared Fort Sumter with its flag flying half staff - mourning another tragedy. Just a couple of miles out of Charleston we met a large barge of wood chips. We ran until dusk, anchoring in the North Santee River - nice holding, lots of room and gentle tidal flow. This is a grassy marsh vista. We invited Bradd & Maeve over for dinner - we hadn't seen much of them during our 4 days at the rendezvous. They explored Charleston while we met a neat group of people doing the loop. 4/21/07 - Saturday we headed out early, trying to make North Carolina. We were soon passing by Georgetown with their large IP mill. We pushed on through South Carolina low country. It was an idyllic run. Clear sky, warm breezes and lots of wildlife. We saw dolphins, turtles, osprey, skimmers and a variety of songbirds. Ruth took a picture of a SC school bus/boat docked at one of the islands. You could tell it was Saturday by the amount of local boat traffic and the proliferation of water lice (jet skis). I spent 3 1/2 hours during the afternoon working on our diesel cabin heater - to no avail. I have a couple of things to try Sunday... then I'll need to talk to a tech. By evening we were poking around in the Calabash River, looking for room to anchor. Both of us grounded gently before we decided to find another spot on the other side of the ICW. Though neither of us needed assistance, a big thank you to BoatUS for the local knowledge. Soon we were firmly anchored in 10' of water. We joined our neighbors for a excellent spaghetti dinner. 4/22/07 - We used the Calabash River as an outlet to the coastal waters of NC, motoring north on gentle swells 26 miles to Cape Fear River inlet. Ruth tried to coax a fish out of the water but found no takers. At Southport we turned south on the ICW, anchoring in Dutchman Creek, a small tidal stream. I worked on the heater for a couple more hours while we were enroute. Didn't get it to run but learned that the part we'd replaced probably wasn't defective as I got the same error code with the old and new parts. Did get the fan sequence to start as long as either part was disconnected. Its looking like a pc board or controller issue. I'll talk to the experts tomorrow. It is a beautiful afternoon. We are surrounded by Redwing Blackbird songs... reminds us of spring in WI. The breeze feels soft, warm and caressing - like it was just newly created. Buddy is in the cockpit eyeing up the local birds. I'm sneezing and blowing my nose - its either a cold or a spring allergy. 4/23/07 - Another beautiful morning, dew on the deck and windows, no wind, a chance for a pleasant cup of coffee in the cockpit. We motored sailed to Wrightsville, anchoring at 1pm. After a quick lunch I went to work on the heater. A series of tests and a phone call moved it up one notch and I need to talk to another tech on Wednesday. So far we've only eliminated possibilities... that's called learning. We had a quiet evening on the boat, dinner and reading. 4/24/07 - At 7:30 I weighed anchor and we headed to sea. Ruthie joined me on deck later and tried to catch a fish. We sailed 62 miles up the coast to Beaufort, NC, in 20 knot winds out of the southwest - basically a sleigh ride in building seas. By the time we reached the Beaufort Inlet we had 8-10 foot waves crashing behind us as we surfed down their faces at 9-10 knots. The sound of a collapsing wave is unbelievable. In the distance we could hear the thundering of artillery practice at Camp Lejeune. By the number of concussions I figured they'd spent my lifetime of income taxes in one day. If we had taken the ICW we likely would have had to anchor and wait until they quit firing as the range brackets the ICW (plus our travel distance would have been 20 miles further). Entering the inlet at Beaufort was dicey with the high seas crashing into a strong ebbing tide. We got knocked around quite a bit. I wouldn't have tried it on a falling tide if this weren't a deep big ship channel with lots of depth and width. Bradd caught a 10# tuna today, so we had fresh grilled tuna steaks on their boat for supper. You can't get fish any fresher than that! It was delicious. We've never spent any time in Beaufort and are looking forward to touring the city tomorrow. 4/25/07 - Wednesday brought sunny skies and 9 knots of wind. A perfect day for exploring Beaufort. Wind had a schooner pinned to the dock, unable to depart. Their efforts to push it off needed more horsepower. I launched our dinghy and offered to help. With the two outboards we were able to peel the ship away from the dock. Good news - sold another article. It will be published Dec '08 in Good Old Boat. I have another short one completed and ready to submit. We walked the area along the waterfront and about 5 blocks back into the town. Many of the homes in the area we saw were very old and small. Along the water we saw a few larger homes - Captains? The waterfront area definitely caters to the tourists... restaurants, curio shops, clothing, art, ice cream - shops like that. We enjoyed walking the area. 4/26/07 - We left Beaufort for Oriental, planning to go to New Bern Friday. As we exited the Core River it was apparent that the winds favored New Bern while the next day they would be dead on our nose at 25 knots. It was any easy choice - we reached up the Neuse River at 8-10 knots. What a fantastic ride! Enroute we were under a steady stream of military aircraft. More than I'd ever seen before. What a variety, from Harriers to transports. Turns out we were under the approach for Cherry Point Marine Corps airbase, the largest in the world. At New Bern we found an anchorage on the Trent River behind the RR bridge and set our hooks. Tomorrow we'll explore if it doesn't rain. 4/27/07 - The weather forecast was right and our decision to do the river yesterday was a good one. I talked to our heater tech again today and decided we have a controller problem. they are sending one to Oriental... big bucks so I hope it solves the problem. If not it goes back. Saw the photo of the new Ariel... a mean looking sailing machine - now we are waiting for the sea trial report. I want to see a photo of Miles with an ear to ear grin. We walked historic New Bern today, stopping for a Pepsi at the place where Pepsi Cola was invented. It's a neat town trying hard to preserve their historic area and doing a good job of it. We visited the Tryon Palace (actually recreated in the 1940's), bought fresh asparagus and strawberries, and re-provisioned a little. It was fun to spend time ashore. Met some really neat folk who would have taken us anywhere we wanted. Talked to a sailing couple who had bought their boat in Germany, sailed the Med for 3 years and then shipped her home (Miles, are you listening? Not that we wouldn't miss you.). 4/28/07 - We started the day with a visit to the New Bern Farmers Market. Ruth picked up some produce and a few other items. Then the two of us took a walk through historic New Bern. "Bern" means bear in Swiss, it's also a key Swiss City, guess who founded New Barn! We stopped by an old fashioned, got everything, hardware store - leaving with a fish cleaning board. The bad weather forecast for this area missed... leaving us with wind, sun and 80 degrees. Nasty stuff. I worked on our VHF radio antenna today trying to get our sending power back to normal. May have gained a little ground. There is one fitting in the line that has to go as soon as I find a suitable replacement. I also washed and waxed the sides of the hull. Tannin in ICW water gives the boats a brown smile, like a coffee stain. Ours is off for the moment. Ruth made a big kettle of shrimp stir fry so we invited Maeve and Bradd over for dinner. That made Buddy's day. S/he has a total crush on Bradd. 4/29/07 - It's another beautiful day. What a difference from the chain of Nor'easters we faced when we came north 2 years ago! We are almost a month north of where we were on this date then. Crazy life, we think in terms of weeks and months instead of miles. We sailed under gennaker to Oriental, NC, a run of about 26 miles. Early afternoon and we were anchored in this beautiful little village - 1,000 people and they like it that size. The sailboat fleet here is very large as the Neuse is fantastic sailing. There is also a strong fishing fleet based here. 4/30/07 - The weather continues to be great! We moved AA to the free town dock, making it easier to use our bicycles. A short ride to West Marine where we picked up a new antenna, trying to get our VHF transmitting properly. Installing it did not seem to resolve the problem. The problem is either the radio (new 10 months ago) or the antenna wire. Arggghhh! We spent the day exploring Oriental, picking up filters for the diesel and visiting with friends we'd made at the Loopers' rendezvous and at the dock here in Oriental.   Return to East Coast.

Gust heels our Tom Point Creek neighbors Fort Sumter flag at half staff Chips ahoy! Egrets lunch at the watergate Low Country school bus, photo by Ruth Ruth shot Barry (red shirt) helping a schooner Off the dock - AA's dinghy made the difference Tryon Palace, New Bern, once the seat of NC government New Bern waterfront from our anchorage Neighbors anchor in moonlight - Alligator River, photo by Ruth Blimp landing - Elizabeth City, photo by Ruth Hanger holds several blimps Fred, 93, continues his rose greeting, photo by Bradd David helps greet new boaters, photo by Ruth AA nestled in Elizabeth City dock, photo by Ruth   An unpretentious dinner theater

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...